Smallholders and Micro-Enterprises in Agriculture: Information Needs and Communication Patterns

Abstract

Agriculture in developing economies often employ the largest share of the workforce yet contribute the least to GDP when compared to the Industry and Services sectors. The reasons for this low productivity are numerous: land fragmentation; lack of post-harvest infrastructure; low technology utilization; weak market linkages; absent or inefficient markets; information and knowledge asymmetries (or lack thereof). This is further exacerbated by overall socio-economic structural deficiencies such as lack of access to finance and crop insurance. Smallholder agriculture often constitutes the largest segment of agricultural producers in developing countries. Increased performance of agricultural smallholders is sine-qua-non for inclusive development not just in agriculture but also at a more broad-based level. The 2010 Growth Report by the Commission on Growth and Development mentions utilization of knowledge and integration into global value chains as two of the characteristics of high growth countries. Given this context, the information and knowledge needs as well as the communication patterns (specifically the use of ICTs) were investigated using an exploratory non-representative survey of smallholders and agricultural micro-enterprises (only collectors, traders, commission agents and retailers of agricultural produce) in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.